Friday 10 October 2008

Welcome to the Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport Stadium!

That could be the announcement you'll be hearing over the PA system at Nihondaira from next March! As was announced on October 9th, S-Pulse are now accepting bids to give one lucky company the right to rename Nihondaira Stadium it it's own image. If you happen to have a spare 90 million yen laying around, then get your offers in! Any deal is expected to run a minimum of four years, and will start from the 2009 season.

Name Nihondaria - For just 90 000 000 yen!

Debate is now raging over on the various Japanese language message boards over what a cool sponsor would be. Personally, anything with Shizuoka in the title (such as the soon to open Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport) would do the job for me, with a shortened version of The Shizu-sta rolling nicely off the tongue. One user on Mixi suggested the Chibi Maruko Chan Stadium after our local anime character, and I've got to admit it does have a certain charm! Well, one thing will remain the same regardless of what name is finally chosen (ie: whoever pays us the most), Nihondaira will always be known as simply that: Nihondaira Stadium. Our home since 1992 and one of the best places in the country to watch football.

In other news: Kazumichi and Okazaki both featured in Japan's friendly against the UAE yesterday. The game finished 1-1. Okazaki played most the match, being taken off on 82 minutes, and Kazumichi started at half time and played to the end. All eyes are now on Wednesday 15th (by which time I will be 30!) for Japan's World Cup qualfier againt Uzbekistan. Japan have to be looking for a result at home against the Uzbeks. A look at the group table shows not much else as an option. Well, good luck to Japan and inparticular to our boys flying the flag for S-Pulse!

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